Fred Weisser

Frederick Christian Weisser was born in Chiltern, Victoria, on 1 March 1893. He married Mildred Rose Fahey on 12 December 1923 and is survived by two children, five grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

His father, Christian Weisser, a watchmaker' was born in, Baden, Germany, in 1855, and died a month before Fred was born. Fred's mother, Mathilde, was born in Doncaster, near Melbourne, on 25 May 1867, her father being an orchardist. Both her mother and father were born in Germany. Mathilde, who died on 15 May 1946, remarried in 1893. She had two children by her first marriage, of which Fred was the younger, and four by her second.

Fred was educated at Napier Street Primary School, Fitzroy, leaving school at 13 to work at the grocery store of Moran and Cato. He joined the Commonwealth Public Service in 1906, being employed as a telegraph messenger after achieving first place in a Commonwealth-wide Fourth Division examination. He was promoted Clerical Assistant, Department of Home Affairs.

The Commonmwealth Parliament was located in Melbourne at that time, together with the central administration of its departments. Fred sat for an examination to gain entry to the Third (professional) Division of the Service and gained third place from a field of 29. Appointment to the Third Division was not automatic but depended on a vacancy occurring. A staff position became vacant in the Bureau of Meteorology in due course and at the age of 21 Fred was appointed to the position of Clerk in 1914.

The Bureau, which was located within the Department of Home Affairs at that time was, because of its small size, regarded as something of a dead-end for an ambitious young public servant. The candidate who finished in 29th position in that examination subsequently was appointed to a much more sought-after department.

Fred was appointed Meteorological Assistant in 1929. He was a member of the RAAF Meteorological Service from 1941–46, being discharged with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After his formal retirement in 1958 he returned to the Bureau as a temporary employee from 1959–64, finally finishing his work in the Bureau at the age of 71.

Fred was a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club in his youth, originally as a playing member. He was a keen tennis player and gardener, and in later life was a member of the East Kew Bowling Club.

Before Fred's death Bill Gibbs tape-recorded his reminiscences of the Bureau's early years, and it is hoped that these will be published in the Bureau's series of METARCH papers. Through the anglicisation of Fred's Germany surname, the original pronunciation of Vysser became Wysser but in the Bureau most people knew him as Fred Weeser.

About 30 present and former staff of the Bureau attended Fred's funeral service on 26 October at Le Pine's chapel in East Kew.

(-contributed by Bill Gibbs)

Bureau of Meteorology